Episode 4 | The Ambush

Last week gave us one of the ugliest pictures of an abuse of power (and I would say abusive power) that I have seen in this country in my lifetime. Trump and Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Zelensky in a way that full-on demonstrated their bullying tactics. Y’all, the cruelty is the point. They wanted to shame him, make him seem like the “bad guy” — a classic move of the schoolyard bully. He throws a lot of punches and then acts like he got punched first. It’s glaringly apparent.

That, coupled with the limitations on the free press, are significant challenges to some foundational tenets of democracy. Trump broke with our allies on live TV, limiting who could cover the issue. On the one hand, we saw it live, and hopefully, our own eyes can tell us what is true. On the other hand, what has happened has a far-reaching impact regardless of what we know to be true. Trump will only entertain people and press outlets that are favorable to him, which will start to slant information, which will begin to slant our thinking.

So how do we resist? What do we do? This is when artists get to work. We document and make stuff. We write poetry and songs of lament. We make public art and perform. We use our creativity to lend our voices to collective freedom. We are interconnected - this is a foregone fact. Everything we do impacts everyone around us. Here, we’ll share two pieces of resistance: a poem by my friend Casey Kelly and a song by our friend Barry Stiles. Use your gifts to lift your voice in whatever small ways you can. This is what we do — small, repeatable, creative acts — that can build and sustain a movement.

You can find Barry’s song here.

You can see the full ambush, ahem press conference, between Trump/Vance and Zelensky here.